246 PROCEEDIKGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Mar. 8, 



the Magnesian Limestone, and has been formed in quite a diiferent 

 manner. It is a great brecciated conglomerate composed of angular 

 fragments of Carboniferous Limestone, cemented together by car- 

 bonate of lime, and as hard and solid as the Carboniferous Limestone 

 itself. In South Staffordshire, North Staffordshire, Shropshire, on 

 the borders of Wales and elsewhere the Permian strata have the 

 same general characters as those of parts of South Staffordshire and 

 Warwickshire, and consist chiefly of red sandstones and marls with 

 occasional brecciated conglomerates, which I have elsewhere de- 

 scribed. 



I have given this brief sketch of the distribution and lithological 

 characters of the Permian strata of England, simply to remind my 

 readers of their general nature in various areas, and not because I 

 have any occasion to discuss in this paper any questions connected 

 with equivalent geological horizons of Permian age, or of the dis- 

 turbances that preceded the deposition of the Permian strata and 

 may have helped to rule their characters. 



As with the New Eed Marl mentioned in a previous paper *, so I 

 consider that the red colouring-matter of the Permian sandstones and 

 marls is due to carbonate of iron introduced into the waters, and 

 afterwards precipitated as peroxide in the manner previously stated, 

 and for the same reason, that I know none of the great formations 

 of British rocks proved by fossils to be formed of ordinary marine 

 sediment that possess this red colour, except those that have been 

 stained from above by accident. I believe, therefore, that in this 

 circumstance alone we have an indication that these red Permian 

 strata were deposited in inland waters unconnected with the main 

 ocean, which waters may have been salt or fresh, as the case may be. 



What other circumstances are there that more or less bear on this 

 question ? 



First, as regards the plants of the British area, they are land- 

 species, and chiefly of genera common in the Coal-measures, viz. 

 Galamites, Lepidodendron, Walcliia, Chondrites, Ullmannia, Cardio- 

 cavjpon, Alethopieris, SjoJienopteris, Neuropteris f, and many frag- 

 ments of coniferous (?) wood of undetermined genera. These last are 

 occasionally met with in the Permian red beds of many parts of 

 England, generally silicified ; and inland waters would be likely to 

 receive fragments of land-plants borne into them by rivers. 



This, however, forms no conclusive evidence, since land -plants are 

 not uncommon in the Lias and Oolites. 



No Mollusca have yet been found in the red beds of Warwickshire, 

 Staffordshire, Shropshire, Wales, or the Vale of Eden, with the 

 exception of two or three casts of a braehiopod allied to Strophalosia, 

 found by Mr. Gibbs and myself in red sandstones near Exhall, in 

 Warwickshire ; and these occur along with Calamites and other land- 

 plants. In Lancashire, however, near Manchester, Schizodus was 

 found by Mr. Binney plentifully in Upper Red Permian marls, in 



* On the Physical Eelations of the New Eed Marl, Rhaetic beds, and Lower 



Lias {sujpra, p. 190). 



t Taken from Mr. Etheridge's lists. 



